iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2: Your iPhone may get these features soon

Apple released the second public beta of iOS 18.1 on September 24, about a week after the tech giant rolled out iOS 18 to the general public. iOS 18 brought a lot of new features to your iPhone – like RCS messaging and home screen customization – and this beta release brings several new features and improvements to the iPhones of developers and public beta testers. This includes some Apple Intelligence features for developers and beta testers who are not located in the EU or China and have an iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max or iPhone 16.

Read more: Everything you need to know about iOS 18

Since this is a beta version, we recommend downloading it only on a non-main device. Since this isn’t the final version of iOS 18.1, the update may contain bugs and battery life may be short, so it’s best to keep these issues on a secondary device.

Please note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18.1, so more features may come to your iPhone when iOS 18.1 is released. It is not yet known when Apple will release iOS 18.1 to the public.

Here are some of the features that may be coming to your iPhone running iOS 18.1 soon.

Control Center adjustments

One of the big changes that iOS 18 brought to iPhones was a revamped Control Center, and Apple has made several fixes to these changes in the iOS 18.1 beta.

In the iOS 18.1 beta, if you go to Control Center and tap the Connectivity tile – where you’ll find Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, and similar settings – you’ll see that several controls are now tile-shaped, rather than row-shaped. This is a small change, but it can make a difference because it gives you easier control over your connectivity settings.

You can also add standalone Wi-Fi and VPN controls to Control Center. Previously, these controls were present on the Connectivity tile or on the Connectivity page in Control Center, but you couldn’t add any of them as your own controls. Apple previously allowed you to add a standalone Bluetooth control module to Control Center. This means that the only connectivity control you can have independent control over at the moment is AirDrop, but that may change.

If you no longer like the Control Center setup, Apple has added the ability to restore the default Control Center layout. Go to Settings > Control Center and tap Reset Control Center.

Call recording is available on your iPhone

In the iOS 18.1 beta, your iPhone can now record phone calls. When you end the call, a symbol resembling a soundbar should appear in the upper left corner of your screen. Click this and you will start recording your phone call. When you start recording a call, an automated voice notifies you and the person on the other line that the call is being recorded – so this feature works whether you’re talking to another iPhone user or an Android user.

When you end the call or stop recording, iPhone saves the recording to the Notes app. You can then recreate the call in Notes. Newer iPhones like the iPhone 14 Pro can also see call transcripts in Notes, but older iPhones like the iPhone XR don’t see these transcripts.

However, before using this feature, as a precaution, check with your local law enforcement regarding the legality of call recording.

Extensive emoji keyboard

Another change in the iOS 18.1 beta is the expansion of the emoji keyboard. Now, if you go to the emoji keyboard and swipe left, instead of seeing the Frequently Used Stickers section, you’ll see most of your custom stickers. If you swipe left again, you’ll be in a new menu that gives you full access to Memoji, allowing you to easily use them instead of other emojis.

Emojis on the emoji keyboard are also slightly larger than in iOS 18. It’s not a earth-shattering change, but it’s there.

Enhanced support for RCS messages

When Apple released iOS 18, it introduced RCS messaging support for iPhones. With the iOS 18.1 beta, the tech giant is expanding RCS messaging support to more carriers around the world.

According to 9to5Mac, these carriers now support RCS messaging on iPhone.

• Telenet (Belgium)
• Proximus (Belgium)
• BASE (Belgium)
• TracFone (US)
• Spire C (USA)

Drag and drop with iPhone mirroring

According to 9to5Mac, if you have the beta version of both iOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1, you can now easily drag and drop files from one device to the other while mirroring your iPhone screen. This will make file sharing between devices even more seamless than before.

Apple Intelligence Features

Apple released the first developer beta of iOS 18.1 before making it available to the general public. According to CNET’s Scott Stein and Patrick Holland, this beta introduces Apple Intelligence features such as email and document writing tools, a photo cleanup tool, and changes and improvements to Siri. According to BGR, these features are also available in the iOS 18.1 public beta.

These features are only available to developers and public beta testers outside the EU and China and for iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as iPhone 16. If you are a developer or public beta tester and have a base model iPhone 15 or older – like me – you will not currently have access to these features.

These are just some of the new features public beta testers can try out in public beta two of iOS 18.1. There will likely be more beta versions before the OS is publicly available, so Apple has plenty of time to change these features. It is not known yet when Apple will release iOS 18.1 to the public.

For more on iOS, check out my iOS 18 review, what to know about RCS messaging on iPhones, and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out everything Apple announced at its September event.